Quotes About Psychology

There's a saying that depression is anger turned inward. I think depression is more complex than that, but there is a pearl of wisdom there for estranged parents.

Psychiatrists see only a biological brain disease. Psychologists see only errors in thinking. That is, if you don't like yourself, or you feel hopeless, or you see life as fundamentally dissatisfying, you've fallen victim to what researchers call "learned helplessness." By some blend of bad genes and bad experience, you have come to see the world in dark hues. Therapy and medication can help you see the world the way healthy optimists do.

As the psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison writes, "There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that, compared to 'normal' individuals, artists, writers, and creative people in general are both psychologically 'sicker'—that is, they score higher on a wide variety of measures of psychopathology—and psychologically healthier (for example, they show quite elevated scores on measures of self-confidence and ego strength)

it is plain that thoughts, feelings, and behavior beget like thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

so if a side of ourselves is not getting expressed—say, we are all 'persona' but no 'shadow'—we unconsciously seek out compensatory opposites, often via relationships

The mega-technological fantasy of glorified and constant consumption in controlled and utopian worlds which prepare people psychologically for life in denatured artificial environments has never been more popular.

Amnesia: The condition that enables a woman who has gone through labor to have sex again.

Obviously the imagination is fueled by emotions beyond the control of the conscious mind.

Do you dream of your victims?" he asked. "Yes," the murderer told him. "But only when I'm awake." Anzola had never heard a more perfect definition of guilt, and didn't ask him anything else on the subject.

Es la naturaleza humana, despreciar al de abajo y odiar al de arriba hasta que subes un escalón y el ciclo empieza de nuevo.

El miedo erosionaba más que el hambre, y el insomnio más que el miedo.

Does this mean that even in a deep dreamless sleep, the mind is in some degree active - yet without us being aware of it? Thus the mind is not conscious of the mind? Have we a divided mind, then, or even two? And if it is disturbance that makes a man get up in his sleep and walk, then do the emotions persist even in sleep? But without awareness, this would suggest the emotions are merely a bodily expression like yawning or needing to make water.

If Lacan presumes that female homosexuality issues from a disappointed heterosexuality, as observation is said to show, could it not be equally clear to the observer that heterosexuality issues from a disappointed homosexuality?

Social neuroscientists now believe that the need to belong trumps the need for safety.

MOST PEOPLE have no knowledge or understanding of the psychological changes of captivity. Social judgment of chronically traumatized people therefore tends to be extremely harsh.

Dissociation appears to be... the internal mechanism by which terrorized people are silenced.

The study of psychological trauma has repeatedly led into realms of the unthinkable and foundered on fundamental questions of belief.

the suffering of traumatized people is a matter not only of individual psychology but also, always, of social justice.

By developing a contaminated, stigmatized identity, the child victim takes the evil of the abuser into herself and thereby preserves her primary attachments to her parents. Because the inner sense of badness preserves a relationship, it is not readily given up even after the abuse has stopped; rather, it becomes a stable part of the child's personality structure.

In situations of captivity the perpetrator becomes the most powerful person in the life of the victim, and the psychology of the victim is shaped by the actions and beliefs of the perpetrator.

Experimental studies consistently point out that the popular remedy for anger, ventilation, is really worse than useless. In fact, the reverse seems to be true: expressing anger tends to make you even angrier and solidifies an angry attitude.

Az unalom – írja Tolsztoj – a vágy utáni vágy." A vágynak ez a hiánya éppúgy a helyéhez szögezi az embert, mint bármilyen szorongás. Akármennyire is unalmas és fájdalmas a kényelmi zónánk, ha végignézünk a lélektani láthatáron, és semmi nem hívogat, egy helyben maradunk.

Fear is a foolish way to control people

D]er wahre Träger von Grausamkeit im Menschen [ist] die Unschuld.